Technology in the Classroom

Zachary Freer

Class of 2013BS, Technology Education

“While completing my student teaching application, the year before my student teaching experience, I requested that I be placed with a specific cooperating teacher because of his reputation in the community and the success of his program. I was excited when my request to learn from this very experienced educator was granted. It was a long-distance placement, an hour and a half from campus. The Center for Teacher Education and my cooperating school worked together to help me achieve this goal.

“The technology that allowed me to complete my distance student teaching was video collaboration. Instead of my professors driving to my school and physically sitting in the classroom with me, they observed me over the Internet. The University used a video collaboration system produced by Polycom™ and connected to the VTEL™ video collaboration system used by my cooperating school. The system at my cooperating school sat on a cart that could be wheeled into our classroom or into the lab and consisted of a computer connected to the internet, two joystick-controlled web cameras, a floor microphone, a wireless microphone (for myself in noisy lab settings), and a monitor. My students were immediately fascinated by the system that sat in the back of our classroom. I explained to my classes that it was a giant webcam or “Skype™ on steroids,” which always got a good response. In addition to being able to use the system to video conference in real time, we installed software which allowed us to record my class sessions which could then be uploaded to Google Drive and shared with my professors for feedback and evaluation at a later time.

“ONU and the Center for Teacher Education’s embrace of modern technology has helped make my student teaching experience a success and has allowed me to be placed in a learning environment which reflects my values and educational goals. This experience is the capstone to my college career and has been one of the many highlights of my education while at Northern.”